


Wardove

by XionKuriyama



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Action & Romance, American Politics, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Autism, Bisexual Female Character, Blood and Gore, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Dark, Depression, Explicit Language, F/F, Fascism, Female Protagonist, Female-Centric, Fist Fights, Gun Violence, Hive Mind, Mental Health Issues, Military, POV Bisexual Character, POV Female Character, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Violence, Psychological Torture, Psychological Trauma, Psychological Warfare, Refugees, Romance, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Suspense, Tags May Change, Thriller, Torture, War, not especially examined but it's there, psychic torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2020-01-05 20:56:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18373943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XionKuriyama/pseuds/XionKuriyama
Summary: Mind the tags! Take care of yourself.In the year 2035, America is rocked by a civil war, swarmed by far-right extremists with psychic powers. Audrey Chance, a teenager with anxiety, autism, and poor health, is separated from her family when her home city of Seattle is attacked, and must now survive and find her family. She findsa soldier separated from her unit named Rhea, who she increasingly finds herself caring for.But she also has contracted the psychic virus that gave the extremists their powers, and while it makes her as powerful as they are, it seems to have its own agenda...





	1. Chapter 1

There were many things that Audrey Chance hated doing, and ration collection was among them. It involved huge crowds, long lines, talking to soldiers, and, most importantly, going in alone.

Her sister, Eve, had technically been assigned to collect things with her today. But they were both adults—Eve 20, herself 18. Thus, they had to go in one at a time. Which meant no backup for her if she had trouble handling it.

To be fair, for once, she did seem to be handling it fairly well. Get her box and get out, right? The box wasn't even that heavy. It was pasta with vegetables on the menu this week—a nicer meal than usual, actually, all thanks to Canadian hospitality.

As she was walking out of the building, even though it was raining right onto her long pink-dyed hair, she thought she was in the clear.

She took a deep breath and looked up into the rain, watching the water splatter against the lenses of her glasses. "That wasn't so bad," she whispered to herself.

Then she heard an unfamiliar voice behind her, a man's voice. "Stop right there."

She looked down from the sky to see a man in military uniform, specifically a United Nations Peacekeeper outfit, all covered in UN logos, and complete with a big blue helmet. It was worn, a bit faded. Old.

Audrey's shoulders slumped. "Y-yes, sir?"

The man walked over, towering over her—as everyone did. Being 4'9" at 18 years old sucked. "I'm going to need to inspect that crate," the man said.

Audrey blinked. "…May I see your credentials?"

The man flashed a document in her face. "Colonel Samuel Neilson, United Nations Peacebuilding Commission."

Audrey bit her lip. "…The Commission is the advisory board, not the soldiers."

"What?"

"The soldiers are called Peacekeepers."

"What, are you saying I'm lying?"

Audrey stepped back a few paces. "…Yes, actually. If you're scamming me, I can report you to—"

Neilson rushed forward, forcing Audrey to back herself up to the wall of the building. He looked her in the eyes. "I don't think it matters when you're half my height."

Audrey shrunk her head into her shirt, staring up at Neilson with wide eyes and shifting on her feet. "Hey, hey, listen—"

"No, no, you listen to me," Neilson said. "Here's how it's going down, okay? You hand over rations, I leave you alone."

Audrey felt her heart pounding in her chest, her breathing quickening despite her best efforts to control it. She felt like she was stumbling over her own tongue as she tried to formulate a retort. "Uh, s-sir, I need—"

"You 'need it.' Listen, I'm not even taking all of it, all right? Half of it."

"I-it's design t-to last a week, and-and-and—"

"Oh, God, please stop that."

Audrey jumped. "Stop what?"

"The stuttering. You sound pathetic and it's annoying."

Audrey gritted her teeth and shoved the box into Neilson's stomach. He was caught off guard, and bowled over, landing on his ass. Audrey made a break for it, running from him.

And nearly into her sister. She stopped just short of knocking her over as well. "Eve…!"

Eve's eyes widened, and she stepped back. "Whoa, there, other way, other way…!"

"Sorry, I-I was running from a guy…!"

Eve blinked. She looked around Audrey, and Audrey turned with her. Sure enough, the UN impersonator was still there, now crouched over and trying to catch his breath.

Eve shook her head and walked over to the guy, grabbing his helmet and pulling it off to inspect it herself. "No strap, looks like it's from thirty years ago…" She bent the front, and the helmet cracked down the middle. "Made of  _plastic_. Who are you trying to fool?"

Neilson pulled himself up, brushing his fake uniform off. "Look, I've got to get fed somehow, all right? There's never enough for everyone."

"That's why you come early instead of intimidating people out of their food." Eve cocked her head to Audrey as she lifted her own box of rations back up. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Audrey ran to Eve's side, and the sisters started walking home, away from the building. Audrey shook her head and looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. That guy was just a bully."

"I mean, I guess he was trying to get food or whatever…"

"Oh, I know that guy. He's saving up for his survivalist bunker near Mount Rainier. His sob story is bullshit."

Audrey cocked her head. "Are you sure?"

Eve nodded. "This war has created a lot of con artists. You need to be vigilant and look out for yourself."

"You'll look out for me, too, right?" Audrey asked.

Eve sighed. "I'll try my best. But you know I can't always be there."

"Like that situation."

"Yeah. I'm really sorry that you had to deal with that."

Audrey shrugged. "I got it done, I guess… felt like I was going to explode, but I got it done."

"You're stronger than you think, you know," Eve said.

Audrey looked away. "No, I'm pretty weak."

"Audrey, you can't be like that. You've got to learn to stand up for yourself."

"The only reason I got out of that situation was because I got an anxiety attack."

"Or because you got pissed off at him and shoved him?" Eve locked eyes with Audrey. "You can stand up for yourself, sis. You can, and you need to."

Audrey paused, taking that in. "…All right," she said, even though she didn't believe it.

 

* * *

 

 

When Audrey got home, she placed the box of rations on the kitchen counter, walked over to the couch, and plopped down onto it face first. The walk to the ration center and back wouldn't be far if her family had a car, but the last one had broken down and there was no way they could afford a new one until her father came home from fighting in Nevada. As it was, the walk was a bit of a ways, and the encounter with the con artist had made it outright exhausting.

She felt the couch shift as someone came down on it. Then, a hand on her shoulder, and the voice of her mother, Emily. "Everything go okay, honey?"

Audrey just groaned and pulled her denim jacket over her head. "It worked out."

"Headache?"

"Yes."

"I'm so sorry, Audrey." Emily pulled the jacket down just slightly so she could place a hand in Audrey's hair. "I wish we had some medicine for you."

Audrey stirred a bit as her hair was stroked. "Did we get anything in the rations? Everyone was just talking about the pasta, really…"

"Well, hopefully," Emily said. "You know how stingy they're being with meds lately."

Audrey rolled over, turning to look up at the ceiling. The light made her regret that, and she shielded her eyes with her arm. "I mean, I get it, we're fighting a war and all… soldiers and prescriptions get priority."

"You do have some prescriptions, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, and let me see…"

Audrey pulled herself up and got the box and some scissors from the kitchen. She placed the box gently down on the floor in front of the couch and pried it open. Three gallons of water, more boxes of spaghetti and vegetable mix than she cared to count with her head aching, some backup batteries, a pamphlet of the latest developments in the war.

She put one hand on her forehead. "Surprise, surprise. Yet again… no meds. No prescriptions, no nothing."

Emily pursed her lips. "I'm really sorry."

"Not your fault."

Audrey went to stand up, but as she did, she felt like all her weight was being shifted to the left side of her body. She stumbled, catching herself on the couch and bring herself back down to a sitting position. Her vision darkened, and though she could hear her mother saying something, it sounded like mumbled gibberish.

_God, fuck, no,_  she thought.  _Can we not do this again? Can we not do this again? Can we not do this again? Can we not—_

She gasped and thrashed her arms a bit when she saw both her mother and Eve looking down at her, close to her face. Eve grabbed her wrists, gently but firm enough to keep her arms still. "Shh, easy, easy. It's okay."

_And we did this again! Second time this week! Great job, body, wonderful fucking job!_

Audrey spoke in monotone, keeping her frustrated screaming fest inside her head. "Why did I faint?"

"You're probably tired, combined with the New York Flu stuff," Eve said.

"Eve, I had New York Flu ten years ago."

"And it infected your brain. There's no shame in—"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Eve bit her lip. "…Well, that's unavoidable, sorry. You did just tumble over onto your face, and I need to make sure you're okay."

Audrey resisted the urge to look away like she was in some romcom and thinking about her beloved. "Sorry."

"No problem."

With that, Eve and Emily—mostly Eve, the one with actual first aid training from school—got about to properly fussing over her. She could see straight, she could hear everyone loud and clear, and she showed no more signs of vertigo upon sitting and standing up. She would be fine.

Under normal circumstances, the fact alone that Audrey had fainted would be cause to seek professional medical attention. But all the nearby hospitals were already stretched to their breaking point, overfilled with refugees and soldiers. If they weren't turned away outright, they might be scheduled for an appointment in maybe three months.

Besides, they had been dealing with this cycle since 2025. Audrey would faint, she'd get attention for ten minutes, her caretakers (whether that happened to be friends or family that day) would determine that she'd be fine, and everyone would go back to their lives. Simple, clean, and while it was annoying, it was manageable.

Routine, almost. And Audrey Chance could handle routine.


	2. Chapter 2

The Chance family didn’t have dinner at the table anymore. It was actually less conductive to conversation. Everyone would inevitably look at the empty chair where the father would usually be and fall silent, and it separated everyone by several feet anyway.

Instead, they ate on the couch together now. They could all sit together that way, side by side. They kept the TV off during this time—it was all just news anyway, and a year into the war with the New Psychic State, all three of them were tired of such things.

The only problem was that the war was beginning to engulf just about everything in their lives, and it was getting harder every day to just not talk about it. To Audrey, at least, just avoiding the subject entirely felt fake. She wasn’t exactly eager to talk about it, but shutting it down felt to her like sticking their heads in the sand.

But at least for this dinner, there was more to talk about than the war, and that was the dinner itself. For once, it was actually _good._ The rations were usually somewhere between mediocre and flat-out terrible. This pasta mix, though, actually tasted like it was planned out with the idea of humans eating it.

It all almost reminded Audrey of old times, before the war.

Unfortunately, that brief illusion was shattered when all of their phones buzzed at once. It was a very specific tone, not the typical short low tone of a text, but rather, a long, high, shrill tone, demanding immediate attention.

Audrey pulled out the phone and looked. The big, white notification box glared into her eyes as she read it multiple times, trying to confirm what she thought she was reading.

_CIVIL DANGER WARNING ISSUED—Psychic forces have been spotted five miles from Seattle. The city may be under attack within the next five to ten minutes. Seek immediate shelter, or seek a humanitarian shelter if any is available. Stay tuned for further updates._

Audrey’s breath caught. She looked to Eve, and her mother. They both looked just as concerned.

Eve took a moment to compose herself, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. “So, we’re leaving, then…?”

Emily nodded. “Right now. Get your bags.”

Audrey scrambled upstairs to her room and pulled a tote bag out from under her bed. She unzipped it to make sure everything was inside. Food and water for three days, first aid kit, flashlight, batteries, it was all in there. Everything she’d need to get to the shelter, hopefully.

She lifted the bag up and ran downstairs to meet up with Eve and Emily. They nodded to each other and got out the door.

As they started walking, Audrey looked up at her mother. “Think we can get there fast enough on foot?”

“We’ll just have to hoof it,” Emily said.

“I mean, we can handle that,” Eve said.

Audrey nodded and picked up to a brisk pace. They could definitely handle this, right? They were together as a family, and they just had to get to the shelter. Everything would be fine.

And then she heard the explosion.

Audrey felt a blast of air hit her back. It was like someone had just hit her with a sledgehammer. She fell forward, and ended up scraping her hands across the concrete as she instinctively tried and failed to catch herself.

Her ears were ringing, ringing, ringing.  She had dealt with tinnitus before, but this as something else, like something to tear into her skull. She rolled over to try and get a view of what had just happened, but her vision was blurry.

She realized that her glasses had been thrown off her face in the fall. Dammit. She reached to try and grab them, or at least reach where she _thought_ they were.

Then she was jerked up by her shirt. Through the ringing, she heard a voice in her head, a man’s voice. _Well, well,_ the voice said, bouncing and echoing. _Don’t you just look beautiful?_

Audrey was already having trouble breathing properly, and now, she was hyperventilating. There it was—a real, live, in-the-flesh exhibiter of Extranormality Syndrome, a soldier of the New Psychic State, an honest-to-God _telepath._ She had prayed never to meet one—even any of the other powers would have been better, any of the ones that just killed you instead of slowly torturing you with your own thoughts.

But here she was. Quite simply, she was fucked.

She was already feeling dizzy and lightheaded, and she could barely tell what was going on anymore with her glasses off and her ears still ringing. She could only manage a weak, mumbled protest. “L-let me go…”

_Nah, don’t think I will._

Audrey struggled to stay awake. Her head was swimming—it actually felt underwater. She just knew what she’d rather have happen than torture. “Th-then… then kill me, please…”

_Hm… maybe later, we’ll see. For now, you look like you could use a nap. And that, I can oblige. Good night for now._

With that, she was pushed down entirely, losing all awareness. The man dragged it out. Audrey could tell—for a few long seconds before her conscious mind faded completely, she felt like just a disembodied voice in a dark void, completely alone.

 

 

She had no sense of time when she woke up. There was little she could use to orient herself in time in the room she woke up in. Was it a room? No, it was shaking around too much, and there were no windows. Luckily, her kidnapper had apparently thought the glasses would be useful somehow, because they were on her face again and she could see everything. But what she saw disheartened her.

She was sitting on a bench and staring at another bench in front of her. It looked like this was meant to hold a lot of people at once, though she was the only one back here at the moment. It had to be some kind of van.

Audrey looked to the outer doors. A large, black eagle made out of geometric shapes was spray painted onto them. The symbol of the New Psychic State.

She looked down and bit her lip. _So, it wasn’t a dream,_ she thought.

She tried to stand up, but she felt shackles on her wrists and around her waist pull her back to the chair. She was completely stuck. She lowered her head and closed her eyes frustrated and tired and feeling hopeless.

“God, I wish I had _something,”_ she mumbled to herself.

Then, a cacophony of voices in her head speaking in unison, clear as day. _You do have us now._

Audrey yelped and jolted so hard that she hit the back of her head against the seat. She cringed and took a few breaths through her teeth. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, who said that?”

The voice spoke again, in total monotone. _Please calm yourself. And remain quiet. We don’t the enemy to hear you._

Audrey mumbled to herself again. “What, you mean the psychics? Because, one, they’re at the front of whatever stolen truck this is, and two, I think it’s a little late to avoid capture.”

_Avoidance is not our current intent. We intend to break you free._

“I still don’t know who you are, or why I should trust you.”

Images started flashing through Audrey’s vision, vivid and tangible. She gasped as she saw various other places, through other eyes and other bodies, each lasting just a few seconds.

_We are the flow of consciousness,_ the voice intoned. _We are the current of the nerves. We are the connection between every mind._

Audrey shut her eyes, keeping out the visions. She felt sweat dripping down her forehead. “Stop, stop, please stop…”

The sensations ceased, though she didn’t dare open her eyes. This had to be psychic torture. That had been too much all at once.

But then, why would it have stopped when she asked politely?

_Don’t be scared,_ the voice said. _You are safe with us._

“Who _are you?_ Enough with the weird cryptic bullshit…!”

_We are the Virus._

“That’s… not exactly a reassuring name,” Audrey said.

_Perhaps not. But it is the name we choose for ourselves._

A pause.

_Audrey. Do you wish to leave this place?_

Audrey shifted in her seat. “This prison truck thing…? Yeah, but I still have no idea how I can trust you.”

_Then allow us to demonstrate._

“Wait, what are you—”

Audrey felt a jolt of pain in her forehead, and she let out a sharp cry. She pulled against the restraints hard, to the point of spraining her right wrist. The strain was making her dizzy again, and she thought for sure she was about to pass out again. She felt floaty…

And then, Audrey found herself looking out towards a city road. She instinctively slammed her foot on something metal—which turned out to be brakes, as her seat lurched forward before stopping, complete with a skidding sound that grated on her ears.

“What the fuck?!”

She clasped her hands over her mouth when she heard the voice that had just come out of her mouth. Not only had it been a man’s voice, it had been _the voice of the man who had taken her._ She looked down at herself and found herself clad in a black New Psychic State uniform, black eagle armband included.

She recoiled at the sight of the NPS symbols on her new clothing, ripping off the armband and the various badges surely awarded for some atrocity or another. She grabbed the rear-view mirror and took a look at herself.

She did a double take, and not just from seeing the person in the mirror who clearly wasn’t her. This man, her kidnapper, looked like a twentysomething who hadn’t punched anyone in his life. This body was thin and lanky, and the face was covered in acne. He even had a respectable neckbeard, last shaved circa the fall of the Roman Empire.

Audrey pulled up the uniform’s shirt to cover that up. “Holy God, what is _happening?!”_

She heard the voice in her head again. _This is your ability, now._

“Possessing my fascist, ungroomed kidnapper?”

_Not just him, whoever you wish. Don’t you see?_

“No, I don’t, not really, not at all, actually.”

_We have gifted you with telepathy._

Audrey stopped, lowering her hand from her face slowly and allowing the shirt to fall off her chin. “Telepathy…?”

_Did you not consider the possibility that psychic power is accessible to all, not just the enemy?_

She drew a deep breath, in and out. She couldn’t even fully process what was happening, but if this was real… she had a chance at survival. Did she?

“Okay,” she said. “I think I get your point… send me back?”

_While we would respect such a decision, we must strongly recommend that you first use this form to free yourself from the vehicle._

“Oh, yeah, duh.”

Audrey unbuckled herself and stood up. Then, she knocked her head on the ceiling, cringing. This guy was _tall._ It made her realize just how short she really was—she could stand up straight on the floor of a van in her actual body.

She noticed this even more when she opened the door and found her old body on the bench, completely conked out. From this man’s vantage point, she looked absolutely _tiny._ And in this state, she looked kind of drugged—her eyes were wide open, but the pupils were constricted to an impossible degree, almost vanished from the eyes to leave only white. Her jaw was wide open, as well.

She shuddered at the sight of herself in this state as she fumbled for the keys to the locks. “D-did you kill me?”

_Of course not,_ the Virus said. _Your physical body is merely acting as a relay for you to send your psychic signals. It uses quite a bit of energy. On that note, do remember to carry yourself out of the truck before switching back._

“Right…”

After some trial and error, she found the right keys for the restraints and unshackled herself. She lifted herself up— _God,_ she never knew how light she was. Her body wasn’t exactly a feather, but it lifted easily, easier than some boxes she had dealt with before.

She shook her head and kicked open the doors on the back of the van. She carried herself to the sidewalk. Then she ran back in the van, shut and locked the doors on both ends, shackled one hand to the bench and threw the keys to the other side. Just in case.

She took another breath. “All right, enough of this asshole, please send me back.”

_As you wish._

The feeling of faintness came over her again, but this time, it didn’t feel like she was dying. It felt refreshing, like stepping into a hot tub. Or being put under.

She wondered if she should really consider the latter all that comforting.


	3. Chapter 3

Audrey wasn’t on the sidewalk anymore when she woke up. She was laying on a large leather couch, sprawled out as though she owned the thing.

When she realized this, she shot up, letting out some odd noise or another, a mix of a drowsy “Huh?” and a terrified cry. Mostly the former, because she was _very_ drowsy. Getting up so fast shot her with pain and lightheadedness.

Before she could get her bearings, she heard that voice in her head again. _Audrey, please lie down. You still need rest._

She might have protested the voice she still didn’t trust for a second if she was fully awake. But right now, she felt like half her brain was turned off. She gladly lowered her head back down, expecting to slip back into unconsciousness the moment her head hit the armrest.

But she didn’t, not quite. She didn’t feel like she could move or talk at all, for sure, but there was something keeping her just awake enough to hear the Virus still talking to her.

_We apologize for the change of place,_ the voice said. _We briefly took control of your body._

_“You did what?”_ Audrey said that out loud, too, or at least she tried to. It just came out as garbled gibberish.

_Please do not be alarmed. We were just bringing you to a safe place to rest. This is the lobby of a hotel. It appears empty, yet still has power. We believe you will find it useful._

_“But you can’t control my body without my permission…! Like, no! Don’t do that!”_

The Virus paused. _…This was only to keep you safe. You would have been much worse off outdoors._

Audrey pursed her lips. She couldn’t argue with that, especially since she could now hear a downpour of rain going on outside. She’d be getting drenched right now if it weren’t for this control.

But it unsettled her nonetheless. Anyone other than her having that control felt _wrong._

She managed the strength to pull her jacket tighter around herself, and to curl up into a fetal position. As she looked around the hotel lobby now, she realized just how alone she really was. Her mother and sister were both God-knew-where, and there was no one in sight here in the hotel. For all she knew, she was the only human being on the entire city block.

There was no one here to help her. Except the voice in her head giving her some kind of superpowers.

She pulled herself up to a sitting position stared down at her feet while stroking her arm. “What the hell am I going to do…?”

_We can help._

“I don’t know if I want your help…”

_But who else do you intend to turn to?_

Audrey fell silent.

_…We can help you. Beyond survival._

“Beyond survival?”

_We can help you find your family. We can help you bring them to a safe place._

“And how do you plan to do that?”

_We may be dispersed among many hosts, but we are of one mind. One purpose. It would not require even a trillionth of our combined will and potential to locate your family members and bring them to you, or bring you to them. This is the power of our combined might. Out of the chaos, one unified entity._

“And what’s the catch?”

_We do not request anything in return at this time, for we do not require it. Our resources are nearly infinite. It would be as if to ask something in return for passing you a pen, or telling you the time. To us, your task is similarly trivial. Longer? Perhaps. But our lifespan is measured in the billions of years. We do not die. Days are as seconds to—_

Audrey slapped her hand against the armrest of the couch, interrupting the Virus’s spiel. “All right, I get it, you’re the ultimate lifeform or whatever. But you’re _in my head.”_

_We reside in your mind only to aid you._

Audrey ran a hand through her hair. “…Okay, fine. I need _some_ help. But if this backfires on me, I’ll make sure you regret it somehow.”

_We assure you that you will not be disappointed._

Audrey briefly wondered if she had just sold her soul. She also wondered if her soul had already been sold the moment she first heard the Virus speak.

But she was alive, and likely going to stay that way, and for now, that would have to do. In the meantime, what she felt like she needed most was more sleep. Preferably not on a couch or a sidewalk. She spotted an abandoned room key on the floor, picked it up and headed to a proper bed, thankfully only one floor up.

When Audrey woke up, the only thing she could see was the dim red light of the digital clock next to her. 4:56 AM. The alert had come in around noon, so that meant it had been about 17 hours since she left home.

Or had more time passed while she was knocked out in the van, or in the hotel lobby? It was hard to tell. Her inability to measure time properly was one of the most frustrating and unsettling things about this entire situation.

_It has been 16 hours, 59 minutes and 48 seconds and counting since 12:00 PM, Monday, November 19 th, 2035, Audrey._

Well. Besides that.

Audrey sat up, rubbing her face to wake herself up. “Thank you for the information, it is noted…” Then she looked to the clock. “Why is the power still on…?”

_It is likely that the enemy plans to hold this city, rather than simply razing it. Seattle is a strategic location, possibly a staging point for an invasion of Canada._

“What do you mean ‘likely’ and ‘possibly’? I thought you were connected with all the psychics…”

_We are. But we cannot be in constant communication with the entire network at all times. This would require far too much energy. And for now, your energy must be reserved._

Audrey heard a growl and put a hand on her stomach. “Okay, that’s a good point.”

She pulled herself out of the bed and turned on the light. It was dim, and buzzed as if the bulb were just a bit loose. The room looked like it had its heyday about 30 years before. It didn’t come off as cheap or sleazy, but it was dated and a tad run-down.

But more importantly, the light illuminated the minifridge. Audrey walked over and opened it up. She didn’t expect to find anything with all the rationing, but to her surprise, there was five small chip bags and two whole soda cans.

One side effect of the rationing that _was_ clear was that they were priced like gourmet meals. She hesitated for a second… then she realized no one was here to stop her or bill her. She could take whatever she wanted from this room, actually—to her knowledge, nobody was around to care.

She actually felt herself shaking as she pulled an abandoned plastic bag out from under the bed and stuffed the junk food in. Despite the situation, it still felt criminal somehow. Looting.

She laughed softly to herself. “I guess this is my life now…”

Then she heard the door bust open, banging against the wall, and a woman’s voice shouting at her. “Freeze, now!”

The woman didn’t need to ask. Audrey locked up and let out only a short, shrill screech. “Oh God, I’m sorry, I’ll put the chips back—!”

“Chips…?” Then she heard the woman sigh heavily. “Oh, Jesus, you’re just a kid… what the hell am I doing…?”

Audrey turned slowly. Standing there was a soldier, clad in US military body armor and toting an M-16 in her hands. The rifle was lowered now, but Audrey had a bad feeling that it had just been poised to blow her head off.

Audrey drew a deep breath through her nose. “…I’m 18.”

“What? That’s only two years younger than me, no way.”

“I’m just short.”

“…What’s your name?”

“Audrey Athena Chance.”

“Oh, hey, pretty name.” The woman smiled softly. “Cpl. Rhea Snyder, I’m with the National Guard.”

Audrey stood up now, slowly so as not to startle Rhea. “National Guard? Thank God…”

“Wait,” Rhea said. “I can’t really… take you somewhere safe.”

Audrey’s face fell. “What’s the problem?”

“I’m in hot water myself,” Rhea said. “I got separated from my unit, and the psis somehow got their hands on a jammer, so I can’t call for help.”

“Oh… sorry.”

Rhea put the rifle on her back and walked over, looking at the bag. “That’s all you’ve got, huh…?”

Audrey nodded. “It’s better than nothing.”

“Gonna disagree. This is _worse_ than just fasting, trust me.” Rhea pulled her backpack off and took out a granola bar. “But you do look hungry. Eat this.”

Audrey took the bar and quickly unwrapped it, taking a bite out of it with fervor. She absolutely needed the sustenance. This already felt like the best meal she had ever had, an opinion possibly influenced by the months of nothing but rations.

She swallowed and looked up at Rhea. “Thank you so much.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble,” Rhea said. “Anything to help out a fellow lost traveler, right?”

Audrey looked down. “I don’t even know if I can travel… I might have to stay here.”

“Would not advise that.”

“Why not?”

“They’re doing patrols, looking for stragglers. The psis want everyone in the city accounted for so they can put the city to use.”

“What does that mean?” Audrey asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Rhea said. “Whatever it is, it’s probably bad.”

“Yeah, probably…” Audrey rolled up the sleeves of her jacket to warm her hands. “But I don’t know where else I can go right now.”

Rhea considered this. “…You said you’re 18, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell you what. If you’re willing to pull your weight, you can come with me. It looks like we both need someone to watch each other’s backs right now.”

Audrey nodded quickly. “I will!”

Rhea smiled. “All right, it’s a deal. How long have you been out here by yourself?”

“A little less than a day.”

“Ah, so right when the attack started? You must have been on the outskirts of town. How’d you get all the way downtown here?”

“I was taken prisoner and dragged here,” Audrey said.

“How’d you get out?” Rhea asked.

_It would be unwise to tell her of us at this juncture,_ the Virus said. As if she didn’t already know that.

Audrey looked down. “I…  I don’t want to talk about it.”

Rhea frowned, but nodded. “That’s fine. Anyway, have any way to defend yourself? Any weapons?”

“Not really,” Audrey said.

“Have you ever handled a gun before?”

Audrey’s head lit up with every possible way _that_ could end horribly for her. She gulped. “Nope, never in my life…”

“Don’t worry about it, then. I don’t have enough ammo to teach you, and without teaching you, it’d be a liability.” Rhea popped a knife in its sheath out of the side of her pack. “Take this.”

Audrey took the handle with both hands and cautiously set the knife on the floor, staring at it with a shudder. The blade alone was larger than her hand, at least in the sheath. She tensed up at the thought of actually trying to use this thing.

“You don’t understand,” she said. “I’ve never used any sort of weapons at all.”

“Neither have most civilians in Seattle,” Rhea said. “And hopefully, you still won’t have to. As long as you do what I say. Got it?”

Another quick nod—Audrey was at least good at following orders.

“Good. Did you leave anything here?”

“I just have the clothes on my back.”

Rhea got up, pulling her rifle out again. “Let’s roll out, then. Follow me.”


	4. Chapter 4

Audrey wasn’t sure where she had expected Rhea to lead her to, but whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t an abandoned bookstore. It was one of those big chain stores that used to be popular before the crash in 2029. Audrey didn’t see as many of them anymore, but this one had managed to remain open right up until the war started.

As it turned out, people didn’t want to devote money to books when food wasn’t even certain.

Audrey raised an eyebrow as the two approached the doors. “Why here?”

“This was set up as the rendezvous point for my unit if we got separated,” Rhea said. “Which we did, so hopefully, there will be _someone_ here I recognize.”

“And if there isn’t?”

“Cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“How far ahead do you usually think?”

“I’m a rifleman, not an officer. Higher ups usually make the plans.”

Audrey stopped right in front of the doors, jerking her head back to look Rhea in the eyes. “So not far, then?” she asked incredulously.

Rhea took a breath and looked away. “Not far, no. Sorry.”

Audrey felt a stir in the back of head, like something crawling under her skull. _We can plan ahead for y—_

Audrey slapped the back of her head on instinct, then turned away from Rhea for a second to mutter back. “Shut up.”

The crawly feeling died down. _As you wish, Audrey Chance._

Audrey took a second to calm herself, running a hand through her hair. Then she pushed open the door. “Well, let’s check…”

Rhea nodded quickly and walked past Audrey, allowing her to follow. But then Audrey thought of something. “Have you actually been to this bookstore before?”

Rhea stopped. “…Not in years.”

“I was here a month before it closed. I’ll lead.”

“All right, not a problem. We agreed to meet on the top floor, if possible.”

Audrey moved past the lobby, still filled with random trinkets and coffee table books nobody wanted. “Up the escalator it is, then.”

The first thing that Audrey noticed was that all the books were still here. Of course, they were still here. Even during the ‘war surplus sales’, no one could afford them. The chain stores were all defiantly overpriced to the bitter end.

The second thing she noticed was that this place did _not_ have power. That wasn’t surprising, either—the building had been abandoned for months, and that was _before_ the attack. But it made it cold—both literally, in late November, and figuratively, in the dark emptiness. She remembered when she used to go here before when there was some extra money for the family to spare, and it was like Christmas Day every time.

That joy was gone now. The building was as soulless as the cheap plastic fad toys in the checkout line.

Audrey stood there, looking up and down the place, filled with words without a single person in sight. “It’s like a ghost,” she muttered.

“Yeah, a lot of places are now.” Rhea cocked her head to encourage Audrey on. “We don’t have time to reminisce, though.”

Audrey nodded and walked to the escalators. She gravitated towards the down one, even though the only way you could tell with the power off was the sign. The kid in her still wanted to be a rebel. She reminisced on when she was a kid and had managed to get all the way up the thing while it was moving, and how proud she was of that, to her parent’s chagrin.

Didn’t feel quite the same when nothing was moving.

She heard a couple of voices and turned to Rhea. “Are those your—”

Rhea cupped a hand over Audrey’s mouth and bent down, behind a shelf. “ _Quiet,”_ she whispered. “Could be hostiles.”

Audrey resented the assertiveness somewhat, but did shut up. Whoever was there didn’t seem to hear them. Rhea peeked around the corner, into the children’s section, then quickly moved back. “Shit, _shit,_ yeah, we have contact.”

Audrey drew in a shaky breath. “H-how many…?”

“Two of them, which is one too many for us to handle. We’re bailing, now.”

“Just two?”

“With guns and, more importantly, supernatural powers that drive you insane for shits and giggles. One psi is basically equivalent to a full squad of normal soldiers by themselves.”

“Point taken.”

Audrey headed for the escalators again. She was fine with just turning around and leaving, really, especially if psychics were here. She doubted that anyone Rhea knew was here, and—

With a massive, ear-splitting _crash,_ the entire balcony buckled, and Audrey stumbled. Rhea caught her by the arm and looked to the source of the noise, drawing Audrey’s eyes as well.

The escalators were no longer there. Instead, they could be found on the floor several feet below, piled in heaps of rubble.

Rhea bit her lip as she looked down. “…Well, that’s an issue.”

Audrey covered her mouth, the height filling her with anxiety. _“Can you help me get down there safely?”_ she asked the Virus, in her head.

It responded immediately. _We’re afraid not._

_“But psychics have done stuff like that before…!”_

_Those that have the proper powers, yes. But a single human can only handle a single ability. More would require too much power._

Audrey shut her eyes in frustration. _“You suck more battery than a phone game! What the hell?”_

_We truly apologize that we cannot be of more help to you in this instance, but you must be patient. In time, you will be—_

_“In time, I’ll be dead!”_

_Audrey, you must—_

And then, Audrey felt something hit her in the back and pin her to the floor. She turned to see a man in a black and red uniform with a double-barreled shotgun, pinning her with his jackboot.

The man narrowed his eyes. “A loyalist and a kid, trying to trap us up here.”

Another man laughed, and Audrey turned her head again to see him pinning Rhea with arm and holding a handgun to her head. “Well, probably more like the loyalist did and the kid tagged along to see the cool guns. Pathetic.”

Rhea spoke calmly, sounding only mildly annoyed. “For the record, neither of us caused that collapse. As you can tell by the fact that we’re trapped too now. Duh.”

The men looked at each other, then back down at their marks. “Okay,” the one holding down Rhea said. “I’ll grant you that one. Oh, well. Free prisoners, then.”

“I don’t know anything,” Audrey said quietly.

“Then why are you with the soldier?”

“Mutual survival instinct…”

“Right, right.”

The men pulled Audrey and Rhea to their feet in unison, keeping the guns jabbed into their backs and ready to end their stories at a moment’s notice. The man with the shotgun grabbed the knife off of Audrey’s belt and inspected it.

“Huh, a KA-BAR,” the man said. “Did she give it to you?”

Audrey squinted in confusion. “W-what, exactly, is a ‘KA-BAR’?”

“It’s a knife. Specifically, the kind the US military uses as standard issue. You don’t seem like the type to buy one yourself, definitely.”

Audrey felt her muscles tense. “Y-yes, she gave it to me, h-happy?”

The man snorted and looked to Rhea. “Give your knife to someone who can use it next time, huh?”

Rhea gave the man a death glare, but didn’t say a word. Audrey just looked down at her feet as they were led away from the collapsed balcony.

_May we suggest a course of action?_

Audrey flinched at that, but calmed herself before anyone noticed. _“If you have an idea, please, I am all ears.”_

_Deceive them. You have access to their minds—use it to fool them._

Audrey considered that for a second, and then closed her eyes. She concentrated, imagining a squad of American soldiers bursting through the doors to the bathrooms as vividly as she could. Then, she concentrated on sending that to the two men, like thrusting the thought out of her head and into theirs.

Both of them started yelling and firing their weapons at the empty space. Unfortunately, it was _loud,_ louder than Audrey had prepared for. She cringed and covered her ears as she ducked behind a bookshelf.

The ear covering didn’t do much. Her ears were already ringing again. The noise made her head throb, too—it was impossible to concentrate enough to figure out what was going on around her now, let alone use her new abilities more.

The shooting came to a stop, as Audrey’s illusion faded, and she heard the sound of fists hitting bodies. She looked up and saw Rhea beating the larger man’s face in. Rhea then took her knife back and used it to stab the man through the throat.

The man with the pistol was scrambling to reload and draw it on Rhea. As he raised the pistol towards her head, Audrey let out a scream, and felt an electric feeling in the center of her forehead. The man dropped the pistol and crumpled to the ground, clutching his head.

Rhea grabbed the pistol and fired it at the man, putting Audrey into another wave of ringing ears and confusion. When she looked again, she reeled and shut her eyes. The image was still engraved on her eyeballs, almost—the blood, the hole, the remaining intact eye staring lifelessly ahead.

Vertigo was hitting her again. She stumbled and fell to her knees, clutching her face. She bowed her head down and put it to the floor, trying to drown out everything going through her mind. For once, part of her actually wanted to pass out, to get out of _here,_ with two bloodied dead bodies.

Things were silent for a minute. Then she heard Rhea’s voice, slow and steady. “Are you okay, Audrey?”

Audrey looked up, and found Rhea crouching down a few feet in front of her. She thought about what to say for a minute. “…I get vertigo,” she said softly.

“Okay,” Rhea said. “Did… seeing that help trigger it at all?”

Audrey wanted to muster some kind of response, but she just let out a small, trembling groan, less like she had just seen dead bodies and more like she had a stomach ache.

“Listen,” Rhea said, still slow and calm. “Our first priority now is getting out of this building and finding somewhere safe. That means we can’t really hang around to… process that. I’m really sorry about that, and I promise we can talk about it once we’re somewhere more secluded. And… more structurally stable. For now, you have to stay strong and follow me. Okay?”

Audrey trembled, but she nodded and pulled herself up. “’Kay. I want to get out of here, anyway.”

“Understandably. Come on.”

Rhea extended a hand and pulled Audrey up to standing position. She went to the bodies and started looking over them. Audrey forced herself to look away while Rhea did that—she didn’t want to look at the bodies at all, really. It would just compound her stress even more.

After a minute, Rhea returned to Audrey, hoisting her pack back onto her shoulders. “Just taking rations and ammo.”

“Not the weapons?” Audrey asked.

“Well, I took our weapons back, but I left their guns. This isn’t a video game where I can just carry a ton of firearms I don’t need in my pockets. I have a pistol already, and I can’t justify lugging that heavy, two-handed shotgun around when I have my rifle already. Too much liability for too little gain.”

“Oh, all right,” Audrey said, nodding. “How are we going to get out of here?”

Rhea considered this, then reached into her pack and pulled out two long, black cords. “Ever do a climbing wall?”

Audrey took a breath. “Um… at playgrounds as a kid?”

“I mean, same concept, really. Just smaller handholds.”

Audrey clenched and unclenched her fists a couple of times, trying to steel herself. “Okay, let’s do it.”

“That’s the spirit, let’s go.”


End file.
